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| Little Sisters of the Poor |
A federal court ruled Tuesday,
July 14, against an order of Catholic nuns who challenged the HHS Mandate in
Barack Obama's health care overhaul because it forces them to violate their
religious faith by providing contraception.
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
in Colorado rejected the claim by the Little Sisters of the Poor that
participating in the federal government's contraception delivery scheme makes
them complicit, according to a statement from
the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which defended the Sisters.
Contraception, sterilization, and abortion all violate Catholic Church teaching, but Obamacare requires employers to provide services that result in all three to their employees without a co-pay. The Sisters had argued that the law's exemption wasn't sufficient, since it meant they would simply be signing the coverage away to another party.
"Although we recognize and
respect the sincerity of Plaintiffs' beliefs and arguments," the
three-judge panel said, "we
conclude the accommodation scheme relieves Plaintiffs of their obligations
under the Mandate and does not substantially burden their religious exercise
under RFRA [Religious Freedom Restoration Act] or infringe upon their First
Amendment rights."
The Becket Fund's lead attorney
for the Little Sisters of the Poor expressed disappointment at the ruling and
condemned the federal government for its continued hounding of the Sisters.
"After losing repeatedly at
the Supreme Court, the government continues its unrelenting pursuit of
the Little Sisters of the Poor,"
Mark Rienzi said. "It is a national embarrassment that the world's most
powerful government insists that, instead of providing contraceptives through
its own existing exchanges and programs, it must crush the Little Sisters'
faith and force them to participate."
The leader for the Sisters
re-emphasized the constitutionally protected principle of religious liberty.
"As Little Sisters of the
Poor, we simply cannot choose between our care for the elderly poor and our
faith," said Sister Loraine Marie Maguire, Mother Provincial for the
Sisters. "And we should not have to make that choice, because it violates
our nation's commitment to ensuring that people from diverse faiths can freely
follow God's calling in their lives."
Rienzi pointed out that access to
contraception, portrayed as an issue by the Obama administration in its
promotion of Obamacare, has not been a problem for Americans.
"Untold millions of people
have managed to get contraceptives without involving nuns," he said,
"and there is no reason the government cannot run its programs without
hijacking the Little Sisters and their health plan."
The Little Sisters operate
group homes and provide daily care for the elderly poor in 30 U.S. cities. The
massive IRS fines they face for noncompliance with the Obamacare HHS Mandate
could threaten their ability to continue their mission in the U.S.
They cannot qualify for a
religious exemption because they employ and serve people without regard for
their religion.
"We are not exempt from the
[Obamacare] Mandate because we neither serve nor employ a predominantly
Catholic population," said the
Sisters' communications director, Sister Constance Carolyn Veit, when the issue
first arose. "We hire employees and serve/house the elderly regardless of
race and religion, so that makes us ineligible for the exemption being granted
churches."
The Becket Fund has maintained
throughout that the HHS Mandate violates the Sisters' religious liberty.
"The Little Sisters adhere to
the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. In accordance with their faith,
they uphold the unique, inviolable dignity of all human life, especially those
deemed weak or, to some, 'worthless' in society," a prior statement said. "The federal government's
contraception and abortion mandate, however, forces the Little Sisters to
provide services that destroy human life, contradicting their very mission to
respect it."
The ruling against the Sisters
is a departure from
the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year to protect them, when it granted an injunction January
24 while the case was appealed. The Obama administration filed a reply to the Supreme Court stating
that the Sisters had no grounds to challenge the Mandate.
More than 400 other Catholic
organizations are also affected by the case because they receive health
benefits from the Sisters' co-plaintiffs, Christian Brothers Employee Benefit
Trust and Christian Brothers Services.
Four "Christian" universities in
Oklahoma also lost as plaintiffs in the religious freedom case: Southern
Nazarene, Oklahoma Wesleyan, Oklahoma Baptist, and Mid-America Christian
Universities.
The 10th Circuit
ruled last year that for-profit companies can join the exempted religious organizations
and not provide the contraceptives, a report from Fox
News said, with the U.S. Supreme Court later agreeing with the court in
the Hobby Lobby case.
And while the panel in the
Sisters' case included one of the judges who ruled in the Hobby Lobby decision,
the judges drew a distinction between the two cases, saying that the religious
nonprofits have an exemption process that was not available to Hobby Lobby.
The Becket Fund and the Sisters
are reviewing the decision, with Becket attorneys vowing to take it to the
Supreme Court if necessary.
"For over 175 years, we have
served the neediest in society with love and dignity," Sister Maguire
said. "All we ask is to be able to continue our religious vocation free
from government intrusion."
Source: LifeSiteNews.
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